


Close Your Eyes and Jump

by ElinorBlack



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Found Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:55:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27091606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElinorBlack/pseuds/ElinorBlack
Summary: After the night they performed at the Orpheum the guys have become stronger, meaning that they are now visible to lifers, and there is one person in the Molina household who needs to be told of the resident ghosts before he accidentally catches them staring at snacks in the kitchen.
Relationships: Julie Molina & Ray Molina, Ray Molina & Reggie
Comments: 6
Kudos: 301
Collections: julie and the phantoms 👻





	Close Your Eyes and Jump

**Author's Note:**

> I have watched this show five times already so it only felt right to write about my new favourite characters.

After the performance at the Orpheum, the guys had become a lot stronger and while Julie was enjoying being able to touch and actually interact with her band, they were more often than not visible to people other than Julie. Granted it was nice that Flynn could talk to them directly and Julie no longer looked insane when she spoke to them and the fact that Carlos knew about them too after Julie told him after that not so subtle mention of ghosting which made things much easier for her.

However, there was one person in the Molina household who didn’t know that her phantoms were actual phantoms, her dad. 

Julie knew she had to tell her dad especially considering the fact that they were visible a lot of the time and living in the same house, it was only a matter of time before her father would spot a bandmate that was supposed to be living abroad, Reggie was getting a little restless as well considering he could no longer hang out with Ray. So Julie had a plan to tell him, and hopefully, he wouldn’t think she’d gone insane.

Julie walked into the studio seeing the guys sat watching something on her laptop.

“Is that Harry Styles?” she asked as she walked over to sit on the floor next to them.

“Wille suggested we listen to it,” Alex said with a smile on his face.

The other three shared a knowing glance, Alex would do just about anything for Wille.

“It’s pretty good, not normally my style but I could listen to this,” Reggie added, still staring at the music video that Julie could now see on the computer screen. 

“Hey, I needed to talk to you guys about something.” 

Alex leaned over to pause the video and they all turned to look at her.

“So with you guys being visible and all, well the chances of my dad seeing you around have increased if it’s ok with you I was wondering if it would be alright if I told him about the whole ghost situation.”

She looked at their faces and saw no hesitation.

“We said that you could tell your dad about us in the beginning, this has always been your choice and if this is what you want to do we’re behind you one hundred per cent,” Luke said while grabbing her hand.

“Plus it would mean I could hang out with Ray again,” added Reggie “I’ve missed his calming presence.” 

Julie and the guys spent the rest of the afternoon planning just how they would tell Ray as it wasn’t the easiest subject to approach. They gathered the Sunset Curve demo hoping that it would provide Julie with some evidence that she hadn’t gone insane, Flynn and Carlos were also on standby to provide backup if necessary.  
Despite all their efforts to prepare Julie was still extremely nervous it wasn’t like Flynn where she just blurted it out because it was still very new to her, but her dad needed to know the whole truth, Julie owed it to her dad and to her band.

*****

“Dad, can we talk, please?”

“Of course mija is everything alright?” He asked seeing the anxious look on her face.

“Yeah it’s just something to do with the band” 

“Is everything ok, you look quite worried?”

“Look I’m about to say something that is going to sound completely insane but I really need you to hear me out and not think I’ve gone crazy ok,”

“I’m all ears,” he said sitting down at the counter so he could focus all his attention on what she was about to say.

“Well you know how the band is called Julie and the Phantoms, the thing is the phantom part might be more literal than you realise,” Julie took the sleeve of the demo and placed it in front of her dad turning it over and showing him the images of Sunset Curve with the year 1995 underneath it. He looked at her confusion clear on his face.

“In 1995 Sunset Curve was an up and coming band, they were set to become music legends but the night they were supposed to play at the Orpheum there was a tragic accident and three members of the band died. Then a few weeks ago when I started to clear out mom’s studio I came across this CD and suddenly had three ghosts moving in.”

“That night when you ran screaming about having seen a ghost,” he trailed off shock evident in his voice.

“That was the first time I saw them, for some reason they had disappeared for 25 years, none of us really know why.”

“And one of your first instincts in finding out ghosts exist, was to start a band?” He asked jokingly.

Julie let out a relieved laugh, glad that her father seemed to believe her.

“They were actually the ones who helped me get back into music in the first place. They realised people could still hear them play even if they couldn’t see them and they were so excited by that fact. It was what they had lived for and being heard made them feel alive again, they reminded me that music can connect people defeating even death, and I realised that if I stopped playing I would lose that connection with mom and a little more of her would have been lost from the world.” By the end, Julie had started tearing up along with her dad.

“I can’t thank them enough for what they’ve done for you, they brought my little girl back. How come you decided to start a band together?”

“It was when I was trying to get back into the music programme, they’d helped me in how I could get back in and Luke even gave me a Sunset Curve song they never got to perform to help me. Then when I performed in front of the school they came along to support me and when they were playing with me we realised that the rest of the school could see them and I guess from there we decided to be a band together,” she said realising that maybe starting a band with the first ghosts you meet probably wasn’t the most conventional.

Getting slightly nervous again Julie said, “Would you like to meet them?”

“They’re here,” Ray said looking around warily.

“No,” Julie laughed, “In the studio. It’s kind of where they live.”

“We’ve had three ghosts living with us for weeks, Carlos was right, so when your Tia said that the house was haunted.” 

Julie sighed with exasperation “Yeah sorry that was Reggie, he was trying to prove that Carlos was right and defend unbelieved children or something.”

Julie and her dad exchanged a glance and burst out laughing, all of Julie’s nervous energy leaving her as she realised that her dad was taking this surprisingly well.

Standing and holding her hand out Julie asked: “You ready.”

“As I’ll ever be.”

*****

The guys had informed Julie that they would be on their best behaviour to meet her dad for the first time, or the first time that he could actually see them. Reggie was probably the most excited as he had formed an attachment to her dad, Julie didn’t know the whole story but from what she had pieced together she figured Reggie had never had a caring parental figure in his life. When she thought about it she realised that none of them really had a supportive family behind them, not in the way her dad was with the band.

Julie knocked on the studio door to give them some warning and said a small prayer in the hopes that they wouldn’t be doing anything weird when she opened the door. Luckily for Julie (and the boys’ safety), they were all sat down on the couch together sitting normally but all squashed together, Julie had noticed they always seemed to be touching each other she wasn’t sure if it was a ghost thing or they were like this before but she definitely wasn’t complaining, she loved the casual hugs and touches that she could now share with them and that they would always share with her.

“Dad, meet the Phantoms of Julie and the Phantoms,” she said gesturing towards them.

They all gave him a small wave but Julie could see how nervous they all looked, her Dad was one of the most important people in her life and the guys wanted him to like them. However, Julie wasn’t worried her Dad knew how much the guys meant to her even without knowing the whole story, it was impossible for him to feel anything bad about them, not when she loved them all so much.

Despite having already been told what to expect it was still a shock for Ray to see it right before his own eyes, he was still coming to terms with the fact that ghosts existed let alone the fact that his daughter’s band was made up of them. Nonetheless, Ray knew he would do everything within in his power to support them all, seeing as they had given his daughter the gift of music back, it was impossible for him to truly repay them for everything they had done for Julie.

“Before I meet you all properly I want to just thank you for everything you’re done for my little girl,” Ray could see Julie blushing out of the corner of his eye “I don’t know the whole story yet and believe me we will definitely be discussing that together but you make Julie happy and helped her move forward and become who she is today and for that, there are no words I could say that would ever convey how much that truly means to me.”

“Julie has done so much for us as well,” Alex told Ray.

“Yeah she allowed us to feel alive again, so I guess we all needed each other” added Luke.

Julie smiled at them glad that they had come crashing into her life, “So this is Alex,” she said pointing to the blonde one sat on the right who had been tapping a drumstick against his leg who gave him a timid smile, “He is our resident drummer who by the way is also an excellent dancer” Alex who looked slightly embarrassed by Julie’s compliments gave a small hello as Julie moved onto her next bandmate.

“This is Luke.” She said pointing to the boy sat on the far left leaving who Ray knew to be the bassist till last “We actually write the songs together” she smiled at Luke as he added, “We’re a real dream team, Julie’s an amazing writer and it’s awesome to work with her.”   
Julie was now glaring at him clearly indicating that he should stop talking.

“What I was complimenting you, and” before Luke could dig himself into a hole Julie interrupted by saying “And finally we have someone who is actually really pleased that you’re able to finally see and hear him. This is Reggie.”

Ray met the apprehensive eyes of the boy sat in the middle who was appeared to be seeking comfort from the two boys either side of him. He appeared tenser than the other two as if Ray’s opinion of him mattered a great deal. 

“Hey Ray it’s nice to actually be able to speak to you, well I was always able to speak to you it’s now more that you can actually hear me, I tend to hang out with you a lot in the house, it’s just that you seem like a really good listener and you have a really calming presence so it’s nice to be near you, you probably think that’s a little weird actually it probably is a little weird now that I actually think about it,” his nervous tirade had been bought to a hold by Julie walking over and placing a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

“Well I can’t wait to have a conversation with you that I can reply in, and I always appreciate the company,” Ray said in an attempt to calm the poor boy who appeared to believe that now Ray could see him he would no longer want his company.

Ray knew he had said the right thing from the excited look on Reggie’s face and what looked like relieved faces from the rest of the band, happy that their friend could keep this bond he had formed with Ray.

“So, can I hear the whole story now, with all the details?”

They spent the rest of the night in the studio explaining everything to Ray and getting to know each other. Ray had realised that these boys meant a great deal to Julie, which made them important to him and, he would ensure that in his house they would always feel loved and cared for, as that’s what family does.


End file.
